worth to his own pocket of these authors' skill in story-writing. Between
the years seventeen hundred and fifty-seven and seventeen hundred and
sixty-seven, the English publisher was at the height of his prosperity;
his name became a household word in England, and was hardly less well
known to the little colonials of America.

Newbery's literary associations, too, were both numerous and important.
Before Oliver Goldsmith began to write for children, he is thought to
have contributed articles for Newbery's "Literary Magazine" about
seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, while Johnson's celebrated "Idler"
was first printed in a weekly journal started by the publisher about the
same time. For the "British Magazine" Newbery engaged Smollett as
editor. In this periodical appeared Goldsmith's "History of Miss
Stanton." When later this was published as "The Vicar of Wakefield," it
contained a characterization of the bookseller as a good-natured man
with red, pimpled face, "who was no sooner alighted than he was in haste
to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and he
was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of Mr.
Thomas Trip."[52-A] With such an acquaintance it is probable that
Newbery often turned to Goldsmith, Giles Jones, and Tobias Smollett for
assistance in writing or abridging the various children's tales; even
the pompous Dr. Johnson is said to have had a hand in their
production--since he expressed a wish to do so. Newbery himself,
however, assumed the responsibility as well as the credit of so many
little "Histories," that it is exceedingly difficult to fix upon the
real authors of some of the best-known volumes in the publisher's
juvenile library.

The histories of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" (once such nursery
favorites, and now almost, if not quite, forgotten) have been attributed